Monday, November 7, 2016

The Omnium Gatherum: Now Available!

The Omnium Gatherum is a bizarre but interesting fortune teller. Written in the 1870s and pairing a social oracle with temperance propaganda, it is the offspring of JT Yarrington, who was an activist for this latter cause.

The social purpose is clear; get a group of people together to tell their fortunes with one another and subsequently ponder the evils of alcohol (the "grog sellers" and so forth!) It also contains a dozen testimonials from the press of its age. Indeed, the oracle can be used solo by making slips of paper for each possible answer to the questions but getting a group together really helps when your purpose is to get them talking about the evils of beer and liquor.